Many businesses have dedicated communications systems that enable computers, servers, printers, facsimile machines and the like to communicate with each other, through a private network, and with remote locations via a telecommunications service provider. Such communications system may be hard wired through, for example, the walls and/or ceilings of the building that houses the business using communications cables. Typically, the communications cables contain eight insulated copper wires that are arranged as four differential twisted pairs of wires that may be used to transmit four separate differential signals, although in some cases fiber optic communications cables may be used instead. Individual connector ports such as RJ-45 style modular wall jacks are mounted in offices throughout the building. The communications cables provide a communications path from the connector ports in the offices to network equipment (e.g., network servers, switches, etc.) that may be located in a computer room. Communications cables from external telecommunication service providers may also terminate within the computer room.
Likewise, commercial data center operations use hard wired communications systems to interconnect hundreds or thousands of servers, routers, memory storage systems and other associated equipment. In these data centers, fiber optic communications cables and/or communications cables that include four differential pairs of insulated copper wires are used to interconnect the servers, routers, memory storage systems and the like.
In both office networks and data center operations, the communications cables that are connected to end devices may terminate into one or more communications patching systems that may simplify later connectivity changes. Typically, a communications patching system includes a plurality of “patch panels” that are mounted on one or more equipment racks. As is known to those of skill in the art, a “patch panel” refers to an inter-connection device that includes a plurality of connector ports on a front side thereof. Each connector port (e.g., an RJ-45 jack or a fiber optic adapter) is configured to receive a first communications cable that is terminated with a mating connector (e.g., an RJ-45 plug or a termination of a fiber optic cable). Typically, a second communications cable is terminated into the reverse side of each connector port. With respect to RJ-45 patch panels, the second communications cable is typically terminated into the reverse side of the patch panel by terminating the eight (or more) conductive wires of the cable into corresponding insulation displacement contacts or other wire connection terminals of the connector port. With respect to fiber optic patch panels, the second communications cable is typically terminated into the reverse side of the patch panel by inserting the termination of the second fiber optic cable into the reverse side of the fiber optic adapter. Each connector port on the patch panel may provide communications paths between the first communications cable that is plugged into the front side of the connector port and the second communications cable that is terminated into the reverse side of the connector port. The communications patching system may optionally include a variety of additional equipment such as rack managers, system managers and other devices that facilitate making and/or tracking interconnections between end devices.
FIG. 1 is a simplified example illustrating one way in which a communications patching system may be used to connect a computer (or other end device) 26 located in an office 4 of a building to network equipment 52, 54 located in a computer room 2 of the building. As shown in FIG. 1, the computer 26 is connected by a patch cord 28 to a modular wall jack 22 that is mounted in a wall plate 24 in office 4. A communications cable 20 is routed from the back end of the modular wall jack 22 through, for example, the walls and/or ceiling of the building, to the computer room 2. As there may be hundreds or thousands of wall jacks 22 within an office building, a large number of cables 20 may be routed into the computer room 2.
A first equipment rack 10 is provided in the computer room 2. A plurality of patch panels 12 are mounted on the first equipment rack 10. Each patch panel 12 includes a plurality of connector ports 16. In FIG. 1, each connector port 16 comprises a modular RJ-45 jack that is configured to receive a modular RJ-45 plug connector. However, it will be appreciated that other types of patch panels may be used such as, for example, patch panels with RJ-11 style connector ports 16 or patch panels with LC, SC, MPO or other fiber optic adapters (e.g., in data center operations).
As shown in FIG. 1, each communications cable 20 that provides connectivity between the computer room 2 and the various offices 4 in the building is terminated onto the back end of one of the connector ports 16 of one of the patch panels 12. A second equipment rack 30 is also provided in the computer room 2. A plurality of patch panels 121 that include connector ports 16′ are mounted on the second equipment rack 30. A first set of patch cords 40 (only two exemplary patch cords 40 are illustrated in FIG. 1) are used to interconnect the connector ports 16 on the patch panels 12 to respective ones of the connector ports 16′ on the patch panels 12′. The first and second equipment racks 10, 30 may be located in close proximity to each other (e.g., side-by-side) to simplify the routing of the patch cords 40.
As is further shown in FIG. 1, network devices such as, for example, one or more network switches 52 and network routers and/or servers 54 are mounted on a third equipment rack 50. Each of the switches 52 may include a plurality of connector ports 53. A second set of patch cords 60 connect the connector ports 53 on the switches 52 to the back end of respective ones of the connector ports 16′ on the patch panels 12′. As is also shown in FIG. 1, a third set of patch cords 64 may be used to interconnect other of the connector ports 53 on the switches 52 with connector ports 55 provided on the network routers/servers 54. In order to simplify FIG. 1, only a single patch cord 60 and a single patch cord 64 are shown. One or more external communications lines 66 may be connected to, for example, one or more of the network devices 54 (either directly or through a patch panel).
The communications patching system of FIG. 1 may be used to connect each computer 26 and the like located throughout the building to the network switches 52, the network switches 52 to the network routers and servers 54, and the network routers 54 to external communications lines 66, thereby establishing the physical connectivity required to give devices 26 access to both local and wide area networks.
The equipment configuration shown in FIG. 1 in which each wall jack 22 is connected to the network equipment 52, 54 through at least two patch panels 12, 12′, is referred to as a “cross-connect” communications patching system. Cross-connect patching systems are also routinely used in data center operations. In a cross-connect patching system such as the system of FIG. 1, connectivity changes are typically made by rearranging the patch cords 40 that interconnect the connector ports 16 on the patch panels 12 with respective of the connector ports 16′ on the patch panels 12′.
The patch cords in communications patching systems may be rearranged frequently. The patch cord interconnections are typically logged in a computer-based log that records changes made to the patch cord connections in order to keep track of, for example, the networked computing device (i.e., the computers 26 and other equipment of FIG. 1 that are located in the offices 4) that is connected to each connector port on each switch (i.e., the network switches 52 of FIG. 1). However, technicians may neglect to update the log each and every time a change is made, and/or may make errors in logging changes. As such, the logs may not be 100 percent accurate.
A variety of systems have been proposed for automatically logging the patch cord connections in a communications patching system, including techniques that use mechanical switches, radio frequency identification and the like. Typically, these patching systems use special “intelligent” patch panels and management hardware and/or software to detect patch cord insertions and or removals and/or to read identifiers located on the patch cords to facilitate automatic tracking of the patching connections. Typically, these systems require that all of the patch panels in the communications patching field have these automatic tracking capabilities.
Another commonly used equipment configuration is known as an “inter-connect” patching system. In an inter-connect patching system, the communications path from each modular wall jack 22 to the network switches, server and routers 52, 54 typically passes through a single patch panel 12. The main advantage of such inter-connect patching systems is that they can significantly reduce the number of patch panels required in the system.
FIG. 2 depicts a simplified version of an inter-connect patching system that is used to connect a plurality of computers (and other networked computing devices) 126 located in the offices 104 throughout an office building to network equipment 152, 154 located in a computer room 102 of the building. As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of patch panels 112 are mounted on a first equipment rack 110. Each patch panel 112 includes a plurality of connector ports 116. A plurality of communications cables 120 are routed from wall jacks 122 in the offices 104 into the computer room 102 and connected to the reverse side of respective of the connector ports 116 on the patch panels 112. The computers 126 are connected to respective of the modular wall jacks 122 by patch cords 128.
As is further shown in FIG. 2, network routers and/or servers 154 are mounted on a second equipment rack 150. One or more external communications lines 166 are connected to at least some of the network devices 154. A plurality of network switches 152 that include a plurality of connector ports 153 are also provided. The switches 152 may be connected to the network servers/routers 154 using a first set of patch cords 164 (only one patch cord 164 is shown in FIG. 2). A second set of patch cords 160 (only one patch cord 160 is shown in FIG. 2) is used to interconnect the connector ports 116 on the patch panels 112 with respective of the connector ports 153 on the network switches 152. In the inter-connect patching system of FIG. 2, connectivity changes are typically made by rearranging the patch cords 160 that interconnect the connector ports 116 on the patch panels 112 with respective of the connector ports 153 on the network switches 152.
Unfortunately, many of the known methods for automatically tracking patching connections are unsuitable for inter-connect communications patching systems because the switch manufacturers generally do not provide patch cord tracking capabilities on commercially available switches. Thus, while inter-connect communications patching systems may reduce the required number of patch panels in a communications patching system, they may also make it more difficult to track patching connections.